MEET LOCAL LEGENDS: By State

"When I was doing my doctorate in microbiology, I got extremely interested in immunology, especially of leukemia and lymphoma. But after two years of pure research, I missed working with people, so I went to medical school. I wanted to help people with cancer."

"I love the opportunity to help people. A lot of people helped me to become a physician, now I have a chance to give back and have a positive impact on others."

"I chose to become a physician because I had always felt it was a way I could connect with people and assist them with their health care issues."

"I was influenced from an early age to become a doctor. My mother and I lived with my grandparents and my grandmother was wheelchair-bound; we never knew the cause. And when I was eleven, my grandfather died at home, of cancer. Then during high school, I volunteered for the March of Dimes, working with kids with polio. Later in college, I was a swimming director for the New York Times Fresh Air Fund and worked with the first mixed group of handicapped and "normal" children. That's when I was convinced I wanted to be a doctor!"

"What counts is being good at what you do."

"When I was four, my older sister died of complications from measles and that had a profound impact on me. Also, my uncle was a doctor whom my father had helped put through medical school and we had great respect and admiration for him. Then I entered the University of Rochester wanting to take pre-medicine courses, only to be told nursing was the only route open. I told my parents and my father said, 'If you want to be a doctor, don't let anyone stop you!'"

"My father wanted to be a doctor but couldn't. Then he wanted one of his brothers to be one, and then the same for my brother, but they didn't. Finally he got his wish with me! I wanted to be a doctor ever since the fourth grade."